It's especially annoying because the Phantom Ruby does control time and space in Mania. Or atleast it's powerful enough to actually have Little Planet genuinely exist rather than merely be an illusion, and even seemingly warps Eggman away in the Egg Reverie fight. Then Forces comes along and instead it's all illusions that seem real and affect those hit by them, but it works completely differently from how Mania used it. They couldn't even be assed to ask / tell enough about it to the Mania team to make the central MacGuffin consistent, if Sonic Team themselves aren't at fault for it.
The Ruby's power actually makes more sense [ironically] in Forces because of its name, the "Phantom" Ruby - ie.
Aren't they different dimensions? I could see different versions of the ruby from different dimensions having different powers.
The Phantom Ruby in Forces is clearly based on PSO2 Ep. 4 plot, so they didn't even make an original idea for their game. Still, I prefer that version of the Phantom Ruby, seems less overpowered and more appropiate for a new mystic jewel. oh, and I always thought the perfect strategy for Eggman to conquer the world was avoiding islands and starting from the innermost part of the continents, as Sonic always finds him by accident when Robotnik's plots happen on islands and coasts.
Or maybe it can warp time/space and create illusions. It's not like the Chaos Emeralds haven't done the same with warping, sealing, transforming and bringing people back from the dead.
How do we know that it was *really* warping time and space in Mania? Maybe we were just seeing things from Sonic and Eggman's point of view, when in reality they were spazzing around on Angel Island as if they were on some kind of drug trip.
Pretty sure the ruby is still creating illusions in Mania (it's in the song titles lol). Any time Eggman uses it, it's an illusion. So the gang traveling to Green Hill or Stardust Speedway for example, wasn't real. And it's why they basically end up on Angel Island and Little Planet twice, one of those times were fake. Guess that also explains the HBH. I'd gauge that's why they had trouble making zone transitions and cutscenes for anything that wasn't a newer stage, because they were given a really garbage premise to work with. Like, how are you gonna justify going from fake Angel Island to just being in Mirage Saloon without overusing the "negative" effect? I actually prefer the idea of it warping space and time. Least that's more concrete.
I don't mind the idea of the Ruby creating illusions, and Mania then being an artificial reality. It's different to the Emeralds at least. But I was expecting it to be more of an unstable Emerald really. It granted a huge increase in power to the HBHs, but also caused then you deteriorate. The same deterioration effect would explain why Forces Green Hill is sapped of colour and desertified. What I really do dislike however is that there's no connection between Mania and Forces. In Mania, the Ruby is detected on Angel Island. Eggman finds it and wreaks havoc. It eventually warps itself and Sonic into Forces. But in Forces, Classic Sonic materialises all alone. The Mania Ruby is nowhere to be seen. Instead, in Forces the Ruby was created by Eggman and even goes through a number of prototype iterations. Both explanations are fine as standalone stories, but they can't both exist. They totally contradict each other. This is another thing that Sonic Team didn't care to actually think about or explain. The two games being connected is a total farce.
The ruby classic Eggman finds is one of the prototypes that warps into classic Sonic's dimension. We see Infinite go out of his way to destroy any of the remaining prototypes which is a lousy explanation as to why we don't see the one that warps with Classic Sonic. Unfortunately they don't do a good job of explaining how the Phantom Ruby even warps to other dimensions. Honestly, I'm starting to think that classic Sonic was just a giant illusion in Forces. That's what I mean, they have a really fucking stupid concept, made more stupid by their absolute lack of clarity. At least with a time warping mystic gemstone you can get away with saying, "It's magic!", but this is an invention that Eggman creates, and it has some of the most fucking obtuse powers ever. Like, here's a thought, what the fuck was Null Space? How does that work? Was that an illusion? How come Sonic and the Avatar really disappear if it's not real? Fuck it, how did Sonic and the Avatar escape if the effects of the Phantom Ruby are final as long as they're under it's influence? It's so stupid.
I had this same thought the other day. When Sonic thought he was running up the Little Planet chain to Metallic Madness, he was actually just slowly walking up a leaning palm-tree, staring at a large coconut. PHANTOM RUBY - NOT EVEN ONCE.
I'd see it the opposite way: modern dimension is the totally illusory one, and classic Sonic is dragged into the illusion through the portal. I would say the ruby was recovering power with the will put on it by its users, and can finally make a fake dimension at the end of Mania, Reverie being a transitional state. It can still make illusions AND cause real dimensional messes, as different forms of a base power, like it's creating the Matrix or something like that. Oh, and, this way, Phantom Ruby would confirm us in some way that modern games don't exist. Well, I'd like to believe that.
The pre-Egg Reverie boss song is called Ruby Illusions. Just accept mania didn't happen. It's quite smart, SEGA gave them creative freedom over the stages just because they wouldn't need to respect those changes in future titles.
Assuming you mean the first Eggman boss theme, the title is Ruby Delusions, not "Illusions" (thanks, Sonic YT page for that). Now, illusions and delusions can be chalked up as being similar phenomena, sure. Just thought I'd point that out.
I mean the Final Boss just before Egg Reverie. Don't correct me when you didn't read my post. [media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAm6v84IO3Y[/media]
No problem, I'm just didn't have all the sleep cycles I needed />/> Also, the fact Eggman doesn't control Heavy King, makes sense in the timeline too as it's the first proto of the Phantom Ruby so the illusions aren't ideal.
Mania bring an illusion doesn't even make sense unless it was a by-product of the ruby/infinite mess. But that's not enough as the marketing around Mania was “look how the zones have changed!!!” By my question is this: Where ARE Studiopolis, Press Garden, and Mirage Saloon, and Titanic Monarch? Westside Island. Even Titanic Monarch the looks like it's on the Little Planet. This also explains the Emerald Hill grass in Angel Island Zone (yes, Knuckles was tricked again....why else would be acting cool with Angel Island being out of the sky again???)
Everything after the intro, and before Lava Reef are all illusions. The new zones can't be a part of the Island, since they're all under Eggman's control. So he either built them really fast, or they aren't real. I think once Eggman figures out what the ruby does after Green Hill, he uses it to give Sonic and the others the run around while he builds the Titanic Monarch on top of Little Planet. Lava Reef is an actual event that takes place, and it makes sense because acts 1 and 2 have Angel Island back up in the sky where it belongs. It's also the only way the transition between Oil Ocean and Lava Reef makes any sense (and I'm guessing they didn't really know how to convey that without spoiling the Phantom Ruby's powers). Plus, I'm pretty sure the alternating pattern on the grass was just added decoration to make it more "first stage" like.
